Host Lab
Description
Xiong Lu is originally from China and received her MS degree in Pharmacy at Sichuan University, China. She focused on pharmacology and medicinal chemistry research on anti-tumor and anti-tuberculosis drug during her Master study. After that, she joined the Germana lab as a PhD candidate in the Fall of 2019 to work on the mutation of TRIM32 in Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy 2H.
Limb girdle muscular dystrophy R8 is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the E3 ubiquitin ligase, TRIM32. Her objective carrying out this project is to thoroughly define TRIM32 ubiquitin E3 ligase activity by assessing the specific TRIM32-E2 complexes and the ubiquitin chains formed for the control of specific muscular targets, combining biochemical and cell biology approaches. In these studies, she will mainly use C2C12 cells induced to differentiate into myofibers and fibroblasts from LGMDR8 patients differentiated towards a muscular phenotype.